Chris McCoy, an entrepreneur and leader often described as a "Purple American Democrat," has made significant contributions to the intersection of technology and public policy through his work on Data4America and as the CEO of STORE Research, Inc. Growing up in a small Washington town, Chris discovered a passion for learning and innovation at a young age, inspired by the legacy of his fourth cousin, Linus Pauling, the only solo two-time Nobel Prize winner in history (chemistry, world peace).
Throughout his career, Chris has demonstrated a unique ability to bridge the gap between technology and public policy. He founded Data4America, a nonpartisan platform dedicated to advancing the understanding of American innovation and public policy through data-driven content and conversations with industry leaders. Under Chris's guidance, Data4America has become a trusted source for thought-provoking content on various topics, including urban living costs, education reform, automation displacement, universal basic income, housing, monetary policy, AI, crypto, economic growth, and the safety net.
While Data4America slowed down during the Trump era, Chris has remained dedicated to the principles that guided the founding of the movement. America is now as divided as it has been since the Civil War. To help solve this, it's time to lean into purple. Data4America is now a nonpartisan project helping advance the understanding of American innovation and public policy -- with a purple lens.
In 2024 and beyond, D4A aims to capture the ethos of embracing a purple, nonpartisan lens to help advance the understanding of the most critical issues facing the country -- from monetary policy, to economic growth and innovation, to housing, to crypto, and to A.I.
As the CEO of STORE Research, Inc., Chris leads the development of the STORE protocol, a decentralized cloud computing protocol that aims to democratize access to powerful computing resources and data, foster collaboration between humans and machines, and empower both on a global scale. With his resilient background, transitioning from a mineral mining family in Oklahoma to being raised by a teen mom on food stamps and free lunch to a prominent student athlete in Washington State and now to computing in California in just three lifetimes, commitment to evidence-based solutions, and belief in the power of constructive dialogue, Chris is well-positioned to shape the discourse around American innovation and public policy in the years to come.
Lifemap is trusted history in 100 characters or less
• Grows up in a rural town with a single mother and two brothers
• Survives a car accident - age 5, causing a lifelong neck injury (kept secret from him)
• Starts his first business - age 6 (selling plums)
• Develops a love for reading and intellectual pursuits as an escape from family challenges
• Discovers his fourth cousin, Linus Pauling, is the only two-time solo Nobel Prize winner (chemistry, world peace) - age 10
• Moves in with his grandfather Jack - age 14
• Elected a Washington DECA state officer
• Becomes a highly-recruited baseball prospect, throwing a 91+ mph fastball
• Neck injury resurfaces, causing a significant drop in fastball velocity
• Elected Washington DECA State President
• Signs to play baseball for the Washington Huskies
• Wins National DECA Presidency and takes a gap year to serve
• Redshirts on the baseball team but retires to pursue tech entrepreneurship
• Starts a baseball training and e-commerce business called PitchSmarter
• Co-founds I Love Baseball, a non-profit in the Dominican Republic
• Sells baseball business to start his first tech company, a social network for sports history (YourSports)
• Survives the Great Financial Crisis, moves YS to Silicon Valley, teams up with Rag (lifelong CTO) to build
• Builds up the social network to 4mm semantically connected sports, interest, and geographical networks
• Recognized by Marc Andreessen as one of "55 Unknown Rockstars in Tech"
• Starts Data4America, a nonprofit exploring policy and data
• Files for a Bitcoin-based wallet patent, beginning his crypto innovation journey
• Retires from YourSports and starts Footprint, a chat system for franchises & chains
• Marries Ciara, a native San Franciscan and UCLA track star (steeplechaser!)
• Realizes the potential of zero-fee settlement in the app layer
• Begins engineering STORE, a decentralized democracy, and designing BlockFinBFT consensus algorithm
• Twin daughters born
• Builds STORE, a democratized cloud
• Receives U.S. patent for BlockFinBFT
• Ships permanent storage+ on STORE and launches the first verifiable, high-performance cloud (governed by BFT Democracy)• Finally leans in to his connection to the Pauling family's intellectual legacy
• Happily raises twin girls+ in 🌉 with Ciara
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